16 Mar 2007

Fiji interim administration appoints eleven new permanent secretaries

10:00 am on 16 March 2007

Fiji's interim administration has appointed 11 new permanent secretaries to head ministries re-organised after the military takeover.

Appointments for 5 of the 16 ministries have not been made and the positions will be re-advertised.

The permanent secretaries will replace the former ministerial chief executives whose positions were scrapped by the new administration.

The salaries for the permanent secretaries will revert back to levels that existed before the creation of chief executives whose pay was increased by about 50%.

Only one of the 11 permanent secretaries appointed is an ethnic Indian - Pramesh Chand who heads the Prime Minister's Office.

The interim minister for public service, Poseci Bune, had earlier expressed disappointment with the small number of ethnic Indian applicants for the top public service jobs.

Mr Bune says some additional permanent secretary positions will have to be created for ministries which are too large and cover numerous portfolios.